scraps_n_needles's review
adventurous
dark
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Camp Creepy is the third book in the Sinister Summer series by Kiersten White. Just like the second book in this middle-grade adventure series, this book picks up right where the last one ends.
Twelve-year-old twins Theo and Alexander and their sixteen-year-old sister Wil have been dropped off to stay with their weird aunt for their summer for reasons unknown and they don’t hear from their parents again. It’s all very vague as to where and what their parents are doing.
In the first two books, the children are dropped off at weird vacation spots like a gothic-themed waterpark and a vampiric-themed spa and are then tasked with a vague task to accomplish. But in this book, the kids take initiative and decide where they want to go and what they need to get done once they get there.
And that place is a summer camp… that ends up being normal, so wonderfully normal, that it’s weird. The camp counselors are extremely cheerful, so cheerful that their sentences end with exclamation points. It’s all so normal, that its suspicious.
And now I feel like I can’t say much more with out spoiling major plot points, but lets just say that tie dye is involved.
But I liked this book much better than the second installment. Much like the first, this one relies on its own story which I think is to the book’s betterment. And we keep learning more about the parents and whatever their deal may be. I feel like the over-arcing story is advancing and I’m really excited for the 4th book, because this book ended slightly differently than the past two.
This book talks about Alexander’s anxiety a lot. And both Theo and Alexander think about how their neurodivergence (that word isn’t used) must make them a burden for the people that they love. But they come to realize that the people that love them, love them for all that they are.
My only real problem with this book and the series as a whole, is that the first part of the book is kind of, but not quite, a regurgitation of the prior books. I realize that its done just in case someone picks up this book first, but still it feels like it takes a hot minute before the actual story gets going.
But otherwise, I’m super all about this series.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Abandonment
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